


you’re in my veins (i cannot get you out)

by potstickermaster



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Neighbors AU, a lot of conversations with a cat, but with a cat, no powers au, potty-mouthed lena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2020-12-28 10:30:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21135263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potstickermaster/pseuds/potstickermaster
Summary: Meow!It’s a fucking cat. A full-grown, fluffy, black cat, sitting on her couch.Lena doesn’t have a cat.Or a neighbors au and Kara has a cat





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> working on the drafts i have on google drive feels like working up to a goodbye. it’s weird. 
> 
> hi. this is unbetaed, sorry for the mistakes, and a lot of other things. title from andrew belle’s _in my veins_

Lena had every intention of crashing into bed as soon as she got home. She had a long day at work, what with two big L-Corp projects launching and a third in its critical phase. Really, fuck anyone who thinks she gets special consideration just because her brother is CEO. If anything, it means she has to work twice as hard—one, to prove to everyone that she’s good enough to be the head of the L-Corp’s bioengineering research department when she’s barely thirty; and two, so she doesn’t disappoint her brother, who’s got high, high hopes for her.

“Yeah, fuck that,” Lena mutters under her breath. Her keys jingle as she unlocks the door to her apartment. “I swear to god I’m skipping the next 10PM meeting.” 

She huffs under her breath and practically drags her feet into the apartment. She’s exhausted, mentally and physically, that she slams her hand on the wall to feel for the switch to turn on the light in the living room. 

Lena’s eyes adjust to the light and she closes the door with a sigh. A yawn forces its way out of her, making her teary-eyed. She kicks off her heels and puts her bag on her couch. Lena blinks when she notices the black pillow on it move. She doesn’t have a black throw pillow. A jacket? Lena reaches out to take it, and then—

There’s a shrill _ meow! _and Lena almost falls on her ass.

“What the _ fuck!” _

The black _ thing _yawns and stretches, and a second later the furball looks up at Lena, wide eyes whose bright yellows become a ring around darkness. 

_ Meow! _

It’s a fucking cat. A full-grown, fluffy, black cat, sitting on her couch. 

She doesn’t have a cat. 

The furball meows again. Lena blinks. Is she hallucinating? 

“How in hell did you get in?” She mutters, looking around to see possible entrances. Definitely not the front door. The balcony? A quick glance at the sliding door shows Lena remembered to close it before she left earlier. 

Lena hears a soft clinking, like a bell, and looks down when she feels something rub against her. The cat meows again as it headbutts Lena’s leg. It’s then that she notices the orange collar around the cat’s neck. 

“Huh.” Not a stray then. Lena sighs as she leans down in front of the cat. It meows again. “Prison break, hm?” 

Carefully, Lena reaches out her hand, watching if the black cat looks like it will scratch. It pushes its head against Lena’s hand though, and the woman can’t help but smile, her exhaustion be damned. She gives the cat a little scratch between its ears, then reached for its collar. Lena finds a bell and a small tag. The furball meows as Lena reads the name etched on metal. 

“Streaky,” she murmurs. The cat meows again, headbutting Lena’s hand once more. Lena laughs softly. “Yes, yes. Hold on, let’s see…” 

She inspects the tag again and lets out a breath when she finds a name and a number on the other side of it. Lena reaches for her bag on the couch to fish out her phone—all while her right hand is busy petting the black furball. _ Streaky. _

Lena juggles keeping the tag up so she could type the owner’s number on her phone, all while she gives Streaky the attention the cat demands. She chuckles when she manages to finish typing, hand moving to scratch the cat’s chin. “Quite friendly, aren’t you? Too bad. We gotta get you home.”

Only then does Lena realize that it was 2:34 in the morning. Streaky meows again and blinks up at Lena, like it—he? she? they?—could sense her predicament. “Your mom’s probably asleep now, kitty,” Lena mumbles. 

_ Meow. _

Lena chuckles and pats Streaky’s head. “I should be sleeping, too,” she says softly. She considers leaving the cat in her living room for a moment—a quick look around tells her nothing was broken and her leather couch is still pristine and white. “Will you behave if I leave you here?”

Streaky only blinks, then walks away from Lena. The woman laughs softly. “You cheeky, furry thing,” she says, pushing herself to her feet. Streaky meows and looks back at Lena, before walking to the direction of her kitchen. 

Lena shakes her head. “I don’t have cat food, kitty,” she tells the feline, even as she follows it. 

God. She’s talking to a fucking cat. 

Streaky meows again. They sit on the kitchen floor and look up at Lena, eyes wide, tail swishing side to side. 

Lena sighs. “What do you want?”

_ Meow. _

“Food?” 

Another meow. Lena walks to her fridge and opens it. Just some leftover salad, carrot and cucumber slices, some frozen fruits for her morning smoothies. She purses her lips and closes the fridge door, then turns to Streaky. “I don’t have food.”

Streaky only stares. 

Lena runs her palms over her face. “Kitty cat. I need sleep.”

_ Meow. _

With another frustrated sigh, Lena unlocks her phone again. She stares at the number she typed earlier. 

“Well, Kara D.,” Lena mutters, locking gazes with Streaky’s wide yellow eyes, looking every inch of the devil cat they are. Lena presses _ call._ “If your cat isn’t gonna let me sleep, then you won’t be sleeping either.”

_ Mrraow. _

Streaky stands and walks to rub their body against Lena’s legs as the woman waits for the call to connect. “Yes, yes, this is your mom,” Lena tells Streaky. The cat shakes its body, then sits back to watch Lena. 

The call connects. “Fu-udge—ngh, hello?”

Streaky sits in front of Lena. _ Meow. _

“Is this Kara… Um, Kara D.?” Lena asks, eyes on the black furry thing by her bare feet. 

“Kara Danvers, yes. Who’s this?” The woman on the other line slurs, clearly just woken up. “It’s—”

“Almost three in the morning, I know,” Lena interrupts. “I have your cat.” Lena closes her eyes and cradles her head with her free hand when she realizes she just sounded like a kidnapper. Catnapper? Whatever. She’s so fucking tired. “I mean, your cat snuck into my apartment.”

That seems to wake up Kara Danvers. “What? That’s impossible. He’s right h—“

Streaky meows, louder than he had earlier since Lena found him. Lena stares at him in disbelief. 

Silence in the other line. “Streaky?” 

_ Meow. _

“Oh.” Kara Danvers—Kara D.? Just Kara?—sighs. “Crap.”

Lena lets out a soft laugh. “Yeah, that’s him. Look, I can just bring him home,” she murmurs. She holds back a yawn. “I don’t think I can sleep with him meowing and I don’t have food so he might just starve here. What’s your address?”

There’s more shuffling in the other end of the call. “That’s fine, I can come pick him up. I live in Argo,” Kara says, that sleepy drawl still in her voice. 

“Wait.” Lena blinks a few times, fighting back sleep. God. Just a bit more, please. “Argo Residences?”

“Yeah,” Kara replies softly. “Apartment 5A.”

“You’re kidding.” Lena leans down to pet Streaky. “I live in Argo. 5F.”

Silence again. Lena has to check that she didn’t accidentally end the call. 

“Cool,” Kara finally says. 

Lena thinks it’s better this way. Faster. She can go drop off Streaky, get back to bed, recover her brain cells. She has no brain cells left. Sleep. She needs sleep. “Look, I’ll get him right over, okay?”

Kara makes a small sound, like a half-hearted protest, but the cat owner finally agrees. “Okay. Yes. Yes ma’am,” Kara mumbles. She sounds like she needs sleep too. Lena doesn’t bother with the _ ma’am_. “Yes ma’am. Please. Thank you.” 

“Don’t worry about it.”

Lena ends the call and pockets her phone. She looks at the black cat that keeps watching her, until she realizes she doesn’t know how to bring him to his owner’s apartment. She never had pets before, never had to take care of another living thing, unless she counted that succulent an old L-Corp engineer who retired a few months back gave her as a gift—and which subsequently died.

Taking her phone again, she makes a quick Google search on _ how to carry a cat, _ processes the information with the single brain cell she has left, and gets going. 

“Tell the cat your intentions,” Lena recites, sighing as she sits on her haunches in front of Streaky. “Hey kitty.”

_ Meow. _

Lena chuckles. “Let’s get you home so we could all sleep, alright?”

Slowly, she reaches out for Streaky, placing one hand under his chest and lifting him up. She supports his hind legs with her free hand before pulling him to her chest, then turning him in her arms so she is carrying him like a baby. 

Thankfully, Streaky doesn’t react violently as Lena makes her way out of her apartment, strange black cat in her arms. 

“You’re purring like a fucking machine,” Lena mumbled as she walks barefoot to 5A, a few units from her own at the end of the hallway. Streaky meows, his tail twitching. “You big furry baby.” 

Lena reaches 5A. Surprisingly, Streaky hasn’t attempted to jump off her arms, yet. Supporting his weight with one arm, Lena knocks on the door. Two seconds later, it opens. 

“Hi,” the blonde woman on the other side of the door greets. Her hair is disheveled and the black-rimmed glasses atop her nose are askew. Lena didn’t really expect Kara Danvers to be so, so sleepily gorgeous, and she was wholly unprepared for the sight that she is startled when Streaky meows and jumps off her arms. He rubs against Kara Danvers’ legs, like a hello, then walks straight into the apartment like he owns the place and like he hasn’t bothered two humans off their beds for him. 

“I’m so sorry about him. I didn’t know he got out,” Kara Danvers says, her voice soft and husky with sleep and Lena thinks she is dreaming. 

“I don’t know how he got in either. Don’t worry about it,” Lena says with a smile. Her eyes feel so heavy. Sleep. Right. She wants to stare a bit more at Kara Danvers. _ Ha. Damn-vers_. 

Christ. Stop it, single brain cell. 

“Um. I’ll let you go to sleep. I’ll need to catch some zzz’s, too,” Lena says, gesturing vaguely behind her. 

“Oh, of course,” Kara _ Damn _vers says, then smiles. “Thank you again, and good night.”

Lena nods sleepily. “Sweet dreams.”

Kara Danvers nods and closes the door the second Lena turns on her feet to walk back to her apartment. She hears the soft clicking of locks, and she sighs as she arrives once again to her now cat-free and also Kara Danvers-free apartment.

Lena makes a quick work of her clothes, changing into some pajamas as her barely-awake brain cell processes what just happened. “Sweet dreams?” She mutters under her breath. Sleep. She throws herself face-first to her bed. “Catch some zzz’s?” 

She huffs and closes her eyes, and wonders why she’s never seen Kara before—for a second, at least, before she passes out from exhaustion. 

//

Streaky isn’t there the next night. Or the next, and Lena considers it a one-time accident—she’d think it was a dream, or a hallucination brought on by her exhaustion, except there were cat hairs on her otherwise pristine white leather couch. She still double-checks the doors and windows when she leaves for work. Of course, she doesn’t consider leaving any opening for Streaky to come visit. Definitely not. 

When she gets groceries that weekend, she takes a few minutes in the pet aisle to Google which brand to get, then takes two cans of the best cat food available at her local store. 

Just in case, of course. 

//

It’s a brand new week and Lena is three useless meetings away from committing mass murder. She has better use of her time than spend hours upon hours listening to men in suits argue about things they barely understand, but she has to be there to defend her funding choices. 

She comes home past midnight, exhausted to the bone and eager to go to bed. Grumbling under her breath, she opens the lights to her apartment with a little struggle. 

Streaky greets her with a yowl and Lena almost steps on the darned thing, sitting just past the doorway. 

“Jesus fuck,” Lena breathes out, frowning at the black cat in front of her. “You scared me.”

Streaky swishes his tail and blinks up at her. _ Meow. _

Lena shakes her head and closes the door behind her. Placing her bag on the living dresser, she kicks off her heels haphazardly. Streaky meows and walks after her, the ting of the bell on his collar following his steps. He meows and brushes against Lena’s leg. She takes it as an apology. 

“Yeah, yeah, it’s okay,” she says softly as she bites back a yawn. “Where’s your mom, hm?”

Lena thinks back to Kara. She hasn’t thought of her in a while—she has been busy, she tells herself—but now that she has, Lena bites her lip at the memory of disheveled hair and adorably sleepy face. Kara Danvers is gorgeous and Lena has seen her for all of the ten seconds she returned Streaky. Not in her best state, Lena knows, but _ still. _

She must be heartbreakingly stunning on her Sunday’s best. 

_ Meow. _

Lena looks down at Streaky, who is staring at her like he _ knows _what she is thinking. Lena chuckles and sits on her haunches to pet him. “You don’t actually know what I’m thinking, do you?”

_ Meow. _

“Well. Even if you did, how’re you gonna tell your mom, hm?” Lena asks under her breath. Streaky pushes his head to Lena’s palm, then moves so her fingers brush his body, making her scratch his fur. He meows again, seemingly satisfied, then looks up at Lena again. _ Meow. _

“Good thing I got you food, huh?” Lena stands and heads to the kitchen, and Streaky follows her with another meow. 

“Your mom’s probably asleep, isn’t she?” Lena says, taking one of the two cans of cat food she bought. Streaky jumps up the counter and starts sniffing about. Lena pauses when she realizes she doesn’t have a pet bowl, and so just takes one from her dish rack. “I should be asleep, not feeding you,” she mumbles, side-eyeing the black cat as she opens the can and empties the wet food into a glass bowl. 

Streaky dives in, not half a second later. Lena chuckles as she starts petting his head and hears him purr in delight. The black ball of fur sits on her marble counter and starts munching on his bowl of chicken and liver paté, or so the label says. 

“What does that even taste like?” Lena asks, watching him. “Or better yet, how’d you even get in, you sneaky bastard?”

The cat doesn’t answer, of course. Streaky only continues to eat. 

“God, why am I talking to a cat,” Lena sighs. She watches Streaky for a few more seconds before shaking her head fondly and heading to her fridge to get some water to drink, then vaguely wonders if Streaky would need some water too. She pours herself a glass, drinks half of it, then takes another bowl to put some water on it before setting it next to the bowl of cat food. 

Streaky is finished by the time Lena empties her glass. He drinks the water Lena gave, then sits on the counter meowing at Lena. 

“You sure eat fast,” she laughs, petting his head. “Does Kara not feed you?”

_ Meow. _

Lena smiles at him. Breaking into her apartment aside, Streaky isn’t so bad. It’s like having a pet of her own without the commitment of it. 

Streaky meows again, like he heard what Lena was thinking of, yet again. Lena raises an eyebrow as she scratches between his ears, then his chin. He purrs, letting Lena pet him some more, before jumping off the counter and walking to the living room. 

“Hey. Where are you going?”

The black cat responds with a meow. Lena follows him and laughs when he stops by the door. 

“You little shit just went here for food and pets?”

_ Meow. _

Lena tilts her head and crosses her arms as she stares at the cat. “I will not be used like this, kitty cat.” 

Streaky looks back at her, meows, then walks to the door. Lena watches what he would do next. 

He stands on his hind legs and reaches for the door knob—except he can’t, bless him, and so he ends up yowling and just scratching the door. Forcefully, that Lena hears where the wood cracks under his claws. 

“Alright I get it,” Lena huffs, moving to open the door. She rolls her eyes and opens it, then glares at the cat. “You’ll make me forfeit my deposit, ruining the door like that. Do you do that back home?”

Streaky just meows at him. 

“Whatever. Go.”

The cat doesn’t move. He looks up at Lena from the doorway, then meows. 

Lena stares right back. Realization dawns on her after a minute. “Are you… waiting for me to carry you?”

_ Meow. _

“Oh you spoiled little fucker,” Lena half-laughs, half-scoffs. She stares some more at Streaky, but the cat doesn’t budge despite the door open wide enough for a crowd to get through. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Lena huffs. She walks to her bag to fish her phone out, then goes to her call history from a week or so ago when she called Kara Danvers. She hasn’t actually saved her number yet—between passing out from after they met to work keeping her busy, there wasn't time to. That, and there was no reason to actually save her number, especially when Lena thought returning her cat was going to be a one-time thing. 

As she looks at the black cat staring at her by her doorway though, as if waiting for her to call his mother, Lena thinks she has a good enough reason to. She dials the number. The line connects after a few rings, that husky, sleepy voice of Kara Danvers going through. 

“Mmhm… I- Hello…?”

“Hi,” Lena greets softly. She walks to Streaky and puts her free hand on her hip, staring down the cat as she speaks to his human. “It’s me. 5F?”

“Oh,” Kara says, familiarity and some sort of relief in her voice. Then, worry. “Oh no.”

Lena chuckles. “Yup. Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“It’s okay,” Kara murmurs. Lena hears shuffling from the other end. “I can go—”

“I got him,” Lena assures softly. “Don’t worry about it. Be there in like, ten seconds.” 

Kara laughs softly. The sound is so soft, so _ endearing _ that Lena feels a nervous flutter in her chest. “Mkay. I’ll open the door.”

“See you,” Lena replies, and she doesn’t realize how breathless it sounds until she’s ending the call and pocketing her phone with a sigh. She looks down at Streaky. “You’re lucky your mom is cute,” she mutters as she leans down to pick him up like the first time. Streaky doesn’t resist; in fact, he purrs, and Lena rolls her eyes. “Let’s get you home, you big baby.”

Lena walks barefoot to 5A again, just in time for her to see Kara Danvers opening the door. Hair disheveled, glasses askew, sleepy smile on her lips. Lena notices this time the tank top she wears. 

“Hi,” she greets, that same husky voice from the phone falling from her lips. Lena smiles. 

“Sorry for waking you up,” she says. Before she could safely hand her Streaky, the black cat jumps off her arms, bumps his head against Kara’s pajama-clad leg as if in greeting, before walking into the apartment. 

The two women watch him then share a laugh. Kara turns to Lena. _ “I’m _sorry,” she says with an apologetic shake of her head. “I don’t know how he keeps getting out.”

Lena waves off her apology with a smile. “It’s fine. I just got home anyway.” 

Kara seems to frown at that, a crinkle between her eyebrows, before nodding. “Long day at work, huh?”

“You could say that.” Lena points back to her apartment. “I should go and let you sleep.”

Kara nods again, slowly, like she isn’t really up for conversation. Lena understands. She nods politely and steps back, but Kara speaks again. 

“You never told me your name,” she says softly, then flushes and fidgets with her glasses. “Just- just so I don’t call you 5F in my head. And on my phone.”

Lena blinks at that, and for a moment she doesn’t know what to say. “Lena,” she finally replies. “Um. Lena Luthor. So we’re fair.” 

Kara smiles again—it feels cozy, her smile, like a warm fluffy blanket on a cold early morning. “Okay. Good night, Lena Luthor.”

Lena doesn’t think anyone has said her name like that; or at least, she doesn’t think she has ever felt like _ this _when someone said her name—all warm and giddy and feeling like she’s drank two tall cups of lattes with extra espresso shots with how her heart raced. 

Caught off-guard, she smiles. “Sweet dreams, Kara Danvers.”

Lena walks back to her apartment, but she doesn’t hear the sound of Kara closing her door until Lena has closed her own—as if Kara waited for her to get home, all ten seconds of her walk back. 

It shouldn’t make her _ swoon. _ She tells herself she doesn’t. It’s a happy crush, is all; Kara Danvers has one demanding cat but he’s cute and she’s adorable, Lena thinks as she cleans up in the kitchen. 

She saves Kara Danvers’ number and doesn’t fall asleep until two in the morning. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You keep running away like this and making me feed you and I might just adopt you,” Lena says as she watches him, fingers busy combing his fur. Streaky looks up at her for a moment, then continues eating. Lena gapes. “Wait. Have you adopted me?”
> 
> Streaky meows, the sound muffled by the food in his mouth.

With the i-Prosthetics project finally launched a couple of days later, Lena comes home a _ little _ bit tipsy after some celebratory drinks with her team. It was a bit past midnight—or one in the morning, she isn’t quite sure. The last shot Lex dared her to take brought her past her happily-buzzed threshold. 

Not that she regrets it. Jess is right; she deserves to dial it down here and there. Not that she’d ever admit or say that out loud of course. After all, according to Lillian, where Lex is the epitome of crazy genius, Lena’s supposed to be the other end—brilliant, soft, lady-like. 

Yeah, fuck that. 

She yawns and opens her door, and a loud, demanding yowl greets her before she could turn on the light. 

She feels for the switch, flicks it on, and she finds Streaky blinking where he sits on the floor. His ears are perked, and the way he looks at Lena is as if he is demanding an explanation why Lena is just getting home—and tipsy, of all things. 

“Shut it. You’re not my mum, furball,” Lena mutters. She drops her bag on her couch and kicks off her heels, then side-eyes Streaky as he walks beside her. “How do you even keep getting here?”

Streaky meows in response, shrill and annoyed. Lena narrows her eyes at him. “What?”

_ Mrraow. _

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re hungry.” 

He meows and brushes against Lena’s ankle. Sighing, she leans down to scratch behind his ear. 

“Does Kara not feed you?” She mumbles. 

He doesn’t reply. Of course. He does allow Lena to pet him; after a few seconds, he meows again and walks to the direction of the kitchen. When Lena doesn’t follow him, he stops and stares back at her with bright, wide eyes. 

“How do you even know I still have food for you, you little bastard?” Lena scoffs, but she only shakes her head. She finds herself walking to the kitchen, and Streaky walks alongside her, looking pleased with himself. 

Maybe Lena’s just imagining that. She sways a little as she tries to avoid the ball of fluff walking beside her. 

“You’re fuckin’ invisible in the dark, you might as well be a safety hazard,” Lena mutters under her breath. She takes out the pet bowls from the cupboard and places them on the counter. Streaky jumps onto it and sits, waiting and watching with his swishing tail and perky ears as Lena takes a can of cat food.

So she may have bought supplies. Streaky can’t possibly know that, can he?

_ Meow. _

“Oh shut up,” Lena mumbles, though it lacks bite, especially as she reaches for him to gently scratch his head while she empties the can into the bowl. Streaky immediately digs in and Lena rolls her eyes. She fills half of the other bowl with some water.

“You keep running away like this and making me feed you and I might just adopt you,” Lena says as she watches him, fingers busy combing his fur. Streaky looks up at her for a moment, then continues eating. Lena gapes. “Wait. Have you adopted me?”

Streaky meows, the sound muffled by the food in his mouth. 

“You slick little fucker,” Lena laughs. “Am I your mom now? Me and Kara?” Lena snorts and leans back against her dinner table, watching the cat eat. She feels hungry too. The last thing she remembers eating were the olives in her drink. Did she even have dinner? 

“Do you… Uh, do you know if your mom is into women?” Lena finds herself asking, furrowing her eyebrows when she realizes what she is doing.

A cat. Lena is asking a cat. 

Has she gone mental? No. She’s just tipsy, is all. 

Streaky keeps eating. Lena sighs and lets herself think of Kara: all blonde hair and blue eyes and toned arms. That’s all she really knows about her, really. That, and she has a very demanding cat. 

Streaky’s bell rings softly as he finishes eating, shaking his head and looking up at Lena with a _ meow. _Lena considers it a protest to her thought. Because of course, Streaky can read her mind. 

“You practically screamed at me because I came home a little later than usual. I’d call that pretty demanding,” she tells him. Lena shakes her head. “Why am I talking to you, anyway?”

Streaky meows in reply, then jumps off the counter and heads to the direction of the door. Lena stays put and watches him. “Nope. Not this time, kitty cat.”

Streaky only meows, keeps walking, and seconds later Lena hears the crunching of wood under sharp cat claws. Lena groans and pads to the living room, opening the front door with a huff. 

“I’m not some midnight daycare, kitty cat,” she mutters. She stares down at Streaky, who again doesn’t budge; he only gives Lena his big bright eyes, meows, and swishes his tail. 

The woman lasts all of five seconds before she’s sighing and taking her phone from her bag. She calls Kara. The line connects after three rings. 

“Lena,” Kara greets, soft and breathless but not the sleepy way Lena is used to. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” Lena laughs. She presses her phone between her shoulder and her cheek and leans down to take Streaky in her arms. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No, no, I- damn it, he was just right here,” Kara mumbles from the other line. 

Lena hums as she walks to Kara’s apartment. “Nope. I have him in my arms right now.” 

“I’m sorry,” Kara sighs. 

“No problem,” Lena assures. She arrives at Kara’s place and knocks. 

“Is that—”

“It’s me,” Lena chuckles. 

A second later and the door opens, revealing Kara Danvers, but not in her just-woke-up look like the first two times Lena had seen her. Instead, she has her hair up in a messy ponytail, phone in her hand, a surprised look on her gorgeous face; her glasses are still askew atop her nose—Lena resists the urge to fix them and Streaky’s weight helps her curb the desire—but instead of her tank top and pajama pants, she’s wearing a nice-fitting light pink dress shirt, sleeves rolled to her elbows, tucked into dark slacks. 

Still not her Sunday’s best, but Lena feels her throat dry at the ruffled look. _ Jesus. _She’s already heartbreakingly stunning and when Lena’s knees waver slightly, she tells herself it’s the alcohol. 

“Hi,” Kara breathes out in greeting, an almost shy smile on her lips. 

“Hi.” Lena blinks as Streaky squirms in her arms, then moves to jump off and walk into the apartment. Kara watches him and shakes her head as she looks at Lena. 

God. Her eyes are so _ blue. _

“You’re spoiling him,” Kara says, and Lena sighs dreamily. 

She drags her eyes away from blue and glances at Streaky, who is licking himself now in the living room. 

“I’m afraid I actually am,” she replies. She looks at Kara again. 

“I’m sorry he keeps bothering you,” Kara says. 

“It’s fine. He’s very adorable,” Lena replies with a smile. _ Besides. Any excuse to see you. _

Lena chokes on air when she realizes what she just thought. She just thought that, right? Kara’s lack of utter horror and surprise tells Lena she hasn’t actually said it out loud. God. Alcohol dissolves her filter and as useful as it can be when she has quantum mechanics problems to solve, it sometimes pushes her headfirst into disaster. 

Like right now.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Lena finds herself asking. _ Damn it. _At least it didn’t come out slurred.

Kara is confused for a moment, before chuckling and looking down at herself. “Oh, yeah. Um. I’m still finishing some article I have to submit,” Kara says. 

_ Article? _Lena wants to ask what article, curious now—thirsty for tidbits of information she is allowed to have. Is Kara Danvers a writer? Who else writes articles? Bloggers? Academics? 

Oh _ no _. An image of Kara Danvers the professor crosses through Lena’s mind and she swallows. 

Kara seems to take her silence as the end of their short conversation. She bites her lip. “Um. Sorry. I’ll let you go to sleep,” Kara says.

Lena doesn’t know what possessed her, but she finds herself shaking her head. “I might just stay up a bit longer,” she tells Kara with a shrug and a small laugh. “If I sleep like this, I’ll get a hangover.” 

It’s the alcohol and her high-speed chase to disaster. 

Kara lets out a sound of realization and smiles. “I see. I hope you had a fun night.” 

Lena blinks a few times at that, and nods. “I did. Thank you. We um, celebrated a project launch.”

Kara nods too. She seems to hesitate for a moment, then steps aside. “Um. Would you like to come in?” The words seems to surprise even Kara, because her eyes widen and she laughs nervously. “I mean, it might not be the afterparty you’d prefer but maybe we could- um, you know- keep each other company for a bit if you aren’t sleeping yet— if you want to, of course! I—”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts with a smile that is beyond happily-buzzed but hopefully not lovesick. A rambling Kara is entirely too adorable for her to handle right now. 

“Sorry,” Kara grins sheepishly. “It’s the coffee. Um. We can share, I made a whole pot. If- if you drink coffee that is.”

_ Meow! _

The two women turn their attention to the source and fine Streaky beside Kara’s feet, looking up at Lena as if waiting for her reply. Lena chuckles softly, shaking her head at the cat, then looks at Kara again. She seems _ nervous, _and Lena finds it utterly endearing that her chest flutters once more. 

She blames the alcohol again. 

“How can I say no to this little fella?” Lena says with a laugh as she leans down to pick up Streaky, who purrs as he is carried. Kara steps aside as Lena walks in and laughs softly. 

Lena scratches Streaky’s underbelly as the cat purrs like a machine in her arms, and for a moment she is distracted and only hears the tailend of what Kara had said.

“—more game than me,” Kara mumbles, and Lena turns to her with a curious look. 

“Sorry?”

“Nothing,” Kara says, a pink flush on her cheeks. She points vaguely to a direction; Lena realizes their apartments have the same layout, and that she is gesturing to the kitchen. “Um. Coffee is over there, but I also have some earl grey and green tea if you prefer. Also beer…” 

Kara trails off as she walks past Lena to the kitchen, as quietly as she could, and checks the cupboards as if to see if she really had what she just offered. Lena follows her, studying her for a moment. She notices the printed socks she is wearing. She makes out sushi designs, she isn’t entirely sure. 

She does feel herself drawn in, cat to a laser beam, and Lena takes a deep breath before smiling at the blonde.

“Considering I did come from a night of drinking, some green tea would be perfect,” Lena says. Streaky yawns in her arms before jumping off to the floor and disappearing under the dinner table. Lena ducks to find her but when she doesn’t, she turns to Kara with a grin. “Besides, I’m more of a wine girl.”

“Green tea it is,” Kara says. “And wine is duly noted.” 

Lena steps closer and leans against the dinner table as Kara takes a pot to boil some water. She feels a little bit guilty about making Kara fuss over her but Lena takes it—it feels nice. Also, it gives her more reason to stay for a bit longer. 

“That’s bribery,” Lena says.

Kara only chuckles. “It’s more of a thank you, really. I still haven’t figured out how he sneaks out. He was literally just behind my laptop earlier.” 

Lena laughs at that. She looks around to look for Streaky again. Lena hears a meow, and finds Streaky on the floor, brushing against Kara’s ankles. 

“He truly owns this place, doesn’t he?” Lena muses, watching as the black furball stares back at him. He meows at Lena. 

“I mean, yeah. I am a mere caretaker of his home,” Kara laughs, moving around the kitchen to prepare Lena’s tea as the visitor watches. Streaky meows like he doesn’t like being ignored. “You know. I pay the bills and get him food and stuff.” 

Lena wonders if Kara knows he has been eating at Lena’s place. The raven-haired woman looks at Streaky, and he meows again, like he knows what she’s thinking.

Is he threatening her? 

Lena chuckles to herself and shakes her head. When she looks up at Kara again, the blonde is looking at her—at least, she was, because the next second she is hyperfocused on where she is fiddling with the tea bag in a cup. Lena thinks there is a blush on her cheeks. 

Lena bites her lip. That fluttering in her chest is back, worse now. She blames the alcohol yet again, for her susceptibility to Kara’s charms. 

Then again, Lena doesn’t think she actually has any sort of defense to it. It’s her smile, she tells herself; that heartwarming, apologetic, sleepy grin etched in Lena’s memory, those blue eyes. 

“How long have you been staying here?” Lena asks, desperate for _ something _to pull her away from going deeper into her own thoughts. It’s dangerous territory. She notices the laptop and some documents on the other side of the dinner table—heavy oak, unlike Lena’s marble one—a mug beside it along with some packets of what Lena thinks are chocolate bars. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is,” she quickly adds. “Just… It’s so weird that we’ve never crossed paths before. Well, that Streaky has never crashed into my place before.” 

She chuckles, and Kara breaks into a smile too. The blonde the pot of hot water and pours some into the cup, then turns to place it on the table. “Honey?” Kara says.

Lena’s heart does a somersault, she stops breathing, until she realizes what Kara meant. She hopes she isn’t blushing. “Um. Yes. Please.” 

Kara moves to get the little jar of what Lena assumes is honey from the cupboard. She sets it on the table, too, and stands just across Lena, the width of the table between them. 

“I adopted him a few weeks ago—maybe two months? I was on my way home, got into my car, and he jumped inside with me and kept meowing.” Kara shakes her head in amusement as she recalls the memory. “Couldn’t send him out of the car, so I just thought he chose me as his human and drove him home and here we are. I think he grew up at the alley near CatCo before he found me.” 

The media company? Lena hums. A journalist then? 

“I’ve lived here for a while though,” Kara continues. “I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen you, too, though to be fair, I haven’t seen most of the other tenants.” 

Lena nods in thought. She has only ever seen Claire from 5C or D, and the occasional tenants from the lower floors. It seems a reasonable enough reason. Lena doesn’t dwell on it or press further—no point to it anyway, especially since they know each other now. 

Not that _ that _was a goal. Ever. It’s a happy accident, is all.

Streaky jumps onto the table, meowing, his bell ringing softly, and sits on the space on the table between the two women. Lena smiles down at him and reaches to pet him between the ears. 

Kara chuckles softly, the sound pulling Lena’s attention, and the raven-haired woman practically preens at the way Kara is looking at her. Blue eyes amused, _ curious _, that charming smile on her lips. 

There’s a fleeting image of those eyes between—

“You’re spoiling him,” Kara says, cutting through the inappropriate thoughts Lena had while she was petting her cat. Lena makes a small sound and drags her gaze from the blonde, feeling like an entire pervert and a half. 

“He kind of deserves to be spoiled,” Lena murmurs. Streaky blinks up at her, and not for the first time, Lena is terrified he could actually read minds. He meows. Lena’s hand on his head twitches. Fucking kitty cat. “He’s growing on me.”

Kara only hums. When Lena musters the courage to look up at her, she sees Kara looking, far too intently, like she is studying Lena, or perhaps remembering where she saw her first. However, Kara stops and blinks furiously when she realizes she has been caught staring, yet again, before gesturing vaguely over at her laptop. Lena thinks she is blushing, but Kara is stepping towards her laptop and mumbling about getting back to work. Lena nods, watching her, before taking her hot tea and putting some honey in it. She takes a seat, diagonal to Kara’s position on the table, and blows on her tea as she showers Streaky affection his human is too busy to give him. 

Lena finds she doesn’t mind. The silence between them is filled with Streaky’s purring, the soft clacking of keyboard keys, and the occasional shuffling of the files Kara is perusing. 

“So,” Lena says after a few minutes. Kara looks up at her and there are those eyes again. Lena licks her suddenly dry lips. “You work at CatCo?” 

Kara smiles and nods. “Yeah. News.” 

Lena makes a surprised sound. “That’s not a publication known for its hard-hitting journalism. More like—high-waisted jeans, yes or no.” She realizes how that must have come out, but Kara laughs softly.

“I mean. You’re not wrong,” Kara says, shrugging and pushing her glasses up. They end up being askew on her nose again. Once more, there is the urge to reach out and straighten them, but Lena only busies her fingers scratching Streaky’s head. “It’s a small section, but still,” Kara continues.

Lena has a feeling Kara is downplaying her contribution to the magazine—or website, she thinks, as it’s been a while since she has checked—but she_ is _ curious. “Do tell. How’d you end up writing news for CatCo?” 

“Ah.” Kara smiles again—that soft, cozy smile that makes Lena want to curl up in bed and drink hot chocolate while she watched the rain fall outside her window. “I used to be Cat Grant’s assistant, before the uh, well, I guess you could say, before the calling called.” She laughs softly at her own joke, and Lena also finds herself chuckling. 

It wasn’t even funny. Streaky meows. 

“Well,” Lena smiles. “I’m always one to believe people should go after what they truly love, um, doing.” She blinks, hearing the words as the leave her mouth. She clears her throat. “It makes working less of a chore.” 

Kara is looking at her yet again, like she is trying to figure her out. Lena’s belly flutters at the attention. Either that or she’s about to throw up. 

“Yeah,” Kara finally agrees, a lopsided smile on her face, and Lena wants to blame the alcohol yet again for that dark burn in her chest making her want to destroy the distance between them, and—

_ Meow. _

Streaky blinks up at Lena. She realizes she has stopped petting him; that, or he truly is a mind-reader and he is telling her to stop thirsting after his human and, well, Lena would really rather not dwell on that. 

“I should go,” Lena says after a while. She stands, and Streaky meows just as Kara stands, too.

“Oh, okay,” Kara says. She smiles, and Lena likes to imagine the disappointment in blue eyes. “Thanks for keeping us company for a bit.” 

Lena mirrors her smile. “Thanks for the tea.” 

_ Meow. _

Lena looks down at the black furball on the table and chuckles. “And thanks for letting me pet you, kitty cat.” 

“Let me walk you,” Kara says, stepping towards Lena. Streaky jumps off the table, landing quietly save for the soft ring of his bell. Streaky follows the two as they walk to the door. 

Before Lena could reach for the doorknob, Kara is opening the door for her. Lena feels Streaky’s soft fur against her ankle. He meows. Kara chuckles. 

“She can’t stay, Streaky,” the blonde tells him. 

_ Mrraow. _He blinks up at Lena.

“I need sleep, kitty cat,” Lena says, and she leans down to give him another scratching between his ears before moving past him and out of the apartment. She turns to Kara with a smile, and Lena hopes it’s _ hope _she sees in Kara’s eyes as the raven-haired woman smiles, hands fidgeting with the imaginary lint on her slacks. 

_ “You _too need sleep,” Lena tells Kara, and the blonde laughs. “Don’t stay up too late.” 

“I won’t,” Kara promises. Streaky meows, and Kara shushes him. “Shut up, Streak.” 

They share a laugh, and Lena gestures vaguely to the direction of her apartment.

“I should—”

“You should—” Kara chuckles, smile a thousand suns, and pushes her glasses up. “Good night, Lena.” 

Lena smiles. “Sweet dreams, Kara.” She looks down and gives Streaky a small wave. “Good night, kitty cat.” 

Then she finally leaves, resists the urge to look back just to confirm that Kara is watching her go because she hasn’t heard the closing of Kara’s door or the clicking of the locks.

She does hear Kara’s soft _ Streak, get back here! _and the soft ringing of the bell on his collar. Lena smiles to herself as she arrives at her apartment.

She is closing the door, just in time, to catch a blur of blonde hair and black fur. Like Kara had just chased down Streaky from the hallway before the cat could sneak himself into Lena’s apartment again. 

“Sneaky bastard,” Lena laughs softly. She takes another second before closing the door quietly. She leans back against it, and sighs dreamily when she hears the sound of the door closing from the other end of the hall. 

Lena thinks about what would’ve happened if she stayed. 

She tries not to dwell on it. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I should tell Kara I’m feeding you, you know,” she murmurs. She pats his head gently. “Maybe I’ll get plus points or something.”
> 
> Streaky meows against his food. Lena hums. “She must be at least bi right? Her outfit last time just screamed not straight to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i miscalculated

Very rarely does Lena find herself able to come home early. Usually, when she finishes her to-do list for the day, she would start on the ones scheduled for the next—for efficiency, of course, because she has a momentum to keep. 

Today however, after a particularly gruelling meeting with the board on the delays regarding the Venture—reasons out of her own control but has responsibility over anyway—she lets herself have it. At least, after some coaxing from Caitlin and Jess practically threatening to kick her out of her office. It’s odd to clock-out with the sun still out when she is used to coming home at eight in the evening at the earliest. She manages to pick up some groceries—maybe some cat food—on her way home, and orders some lo mein to go from the quaint little Chinese restaurant near Argo. 

When she arrives home, she sets her groceries aside in her fridge and cupboards, and realizes she has nothing else to do until she has to get up again the next day at 5:30. 

The clock on the wall reads 6:00. Almost 12 hours. 

It’s a startling reminder. Efficiency and momentum aside, she has absorbed herself into work because she doesn’t have a life out of it. 

With a sigh, she brings dinner, a bottle of wine and her laptop to on the couch. She doesn't resist the urge and goes on to check her email. For her own sanity. 

It goes downhill from there, of course. A new email from Lex at half past six means Lena is reading through the proposal she has to proofread come next week, half of her dinner forgotten on the coffee table as she immerses herself in her work. 

Lena is only torn from her laptop when she hears the splintering of wood. She pauses from reading and glances towards the front door. 

There’s a meow. She blinks. “Seriously?” 

Another meow. Lena laughs to herself. She checks the time—almost eight in the evening. She closes her laptop and puts her leftovers in the fridge. The meowing returns. More splintering of wood. Lena sighs and walks to the front door. She opens it to find Streaky, his tail twitching from side-to-side. He greets her with a blink and a displeased yowl. 

“Hello to you, too, kitty cat,” Lena says with an amused tilt of her head. She crosses her arms and stares down at him. “Here for your dinner?”

Streaky answers with a meow, but he doesn’t actually walk past the open door until Lena steps aside. As soon as she does, Streaky lets himself in, bell on his collar ringing with his every step.

“Look at that. You don’t usually break into my place, huh?” Lena muses, shaking her head as she closes the door. She turns to find Streaky by the doorway to the kitchen. Lena sighs. “You know, your mom’s right. I am spoiling you.” 

Streaky only meows, then jumps up the counter. Lena purses her lips then heads to the kitchen to feed the darned thing—she gets the food bowls out, pours him water, empties a can of cat food. As usual. Streaky mewls and digs in, and Lena just sighs as she watches. 

“I should tell Kara I’m feeding you, you know,” she murmurs. She pats his head gently. “Maybe I’ll get plus points or something.”

Streaky meows against his food. Lena hums. “She must be at least bi right? Her outfit last time just screamed  _ not straight  _ to me.”

_ Meow. _

“Do you even know what I’m talking about?”

No response this time.

Lena sighs dramatically. “Of course you don’t. You only know of being served like the mighty cat king that you are.”

Streaky’s ears twitch, and Lena shakes her head with a soft laugh. “I should really stop talking to a cat.” 

_ Meow.  _

“Rude,” Lena says with a playful huff. She scratches between Streaky’s ears, then leaves Streaky be and returns to the living room. She opens her laptop again and comes back to the file she has been working on in the past hour or so. 

She only looks up when she hears a meow and the soft ringing of Streaky’s bell. Lena looks for him but doesn’t find the furry thing—then there’s movement beside her and Lena almost jumps until she realizes it’s Streaky, making himself comfortable. He curls up beside her on the couch, pressed up against Lena’s thigh for presumably her warmth. 

“God. You’re so fucking adorable,” Lena mutters. He purrs, and Lena can’t help but keep her left hand on his head, gently scratching him. She can type and scroll with one hand. It’s fine. “Aren’t you going to go demand me to open the door and get you home considering you’re done eating?”

Streaky makes what Lena is certain a huffing sound, which makes the raven-haired woman laugh. “Am I wrong though?” 

The cat moves to headbutt Lena’s hand, pushing for her palm until he is pressing his face against the soft crook of it.  _ Meow.  _

Lena giggles, amused, but she lets Streaky keep her hand like some sort of mask. She doesn’t move from where she sits, doesn’t move her hand at all, concerned that the slightest of movements would wake Streaky. Sure, her muscles ache from the lack of movement but it’s  _ fine.  _

She’ll probably die like this.

There’s a knock some time later. Lena considers ignoring it, wary still of the slumbering feline beside her, but the knocks come again. Streaky wakes and perks his head up, then meows and leaps off the couch. 

“Is that your mom?” Lena asks, following him with her gaze, until she realizes she can finally move now. She lets out a breath of relief and moves her laptop to the coffee table so she could stretch for a bit, but when she walks towards the door, she can’t find Streaky anywhere. “Kitty cat?”

Another knock. 

“Coming.” Where did Streaky go?

Lena opens the door to find Kara Danvers on the other side, looking entirely too dapper for her own good in a crisp, white dress shirt, tucked neatly in a pair of deep maroon slacks. She wears it with a brown leather belt and matching brogues, and the outfit is finished with a gray blazer. 

Kara is smiling that charming, apologetic smile, too, her eyes bright behind her glasses. Lena tells herself the shakiness in her knees is because of her lack of movement in the past hour or so. All Streaky’s fault. Not because Kara looks like  _ this  _ in front of her. 

Sure, she’s wondered what Kara looked like in her Sunday’s best, but this feels like the universe telling her  _ you sure about that, thirsty lesbian? _

“Hi,” Lena greets. She hopes it doesn’t sound as dreamy as she feels. 

“Hey,” Kara says. She pushes her thumbs to her pockets and it’s breathtakingly endearing that Lena has to hang on to the door to keep herself up. “Hi. I just- um, wanted to check if Streaky’s with you? I’ve been looki—”

_ Mrraow.  _

The cat in question rubs against Lena’s ankle, walks to Kara to make his presence known, then retreats back to Lena’s apartment without another sound. Lena watches the surprise on Kara’s face. Her lips form a little “o” and she blinks like she is checking if she just saw her cat walk back into the apartment that was certainly not hers. 

“Streaky!” Kara exclaims it so dramatically that Lena can’t help but laugh. 

“Sorry,” Lena says. “I may have kind of held him up. He came knocking.” She doesn’t need to look at the front of the door to know there are scratches on the wood. Streaky left some from the inside after all, from a few days ago. She has long accepted the fact that she’ll never get her security deposit back in full. 

“That’s okay,” Kara assures. “Just wanted to make sure he hasn’t run away or something. I just got home.”

Lena nods. She gives Kara’s outfit another glance, vaguely wonders how long it would take her to get rid of all those layers.  _ Stop.  _ “Long day at work?” Lena blurts out. 

Kara chuckles. “Yeah. A couple of interviews, whatnot.”

Lena hums and nods again. She notices that Kara’s blazer has elbow patches.  _ Cute.  _

Kara gestures vaguely. “Um. Can I come in and get him?”

“Oh!” Lena flushes and pulls away from where she hung from the door to let Kara in. “Yes. Come in. Please. Sorry.” She lets out a nervous laugh. 

It’s only compensated by the way Kara adorably looks down, a soft smile on her lips. “Thank you.”

She steps into Lena’s apartment and looks around, and Lena thanks her minimalist choices because it means there isn’t much of a mess in her place. Kara pauses and moves to kick off her shoes, but Lena stops her. 

“It’s fine,” she promises. 

Kara hesitates, nods, and walks on to where Streaky is lounging on the arm of the white leather couch, pristine save for the black cat hairs here and there. “Time to go home, Streak.” 

Streaky opens his eyes. He blinks at the two women, yawns and stretches, then closes his eyes to presumably sleep again. 

“Cheeky little thing,” Lena chuckles as she raises an eyebrow. 

Kara only shakes her head and moves to pick up Streaky, but the darned thing yowls and digs his claws into Lena’s delicate white couch. The crunch of snapping leather echoes in the otherwise quiet living room. 

“Shit. Sorry,” Kara winces, immediately letting Streaky go. The cat meows unhappily at Kara and moves from the arm of the couch to lie down on Lena’s laptop. 

Lena’s jaw twitches as she moves to inspect the damage on the couch. Just some hints of holes in the soft leather, nothing too big, but Kara looks two seconds away from getting Lena an entirely new couch. 

“I’ll have that repaired,” Kara says. “I know someone.”

Lena shakes her head as she rubs the tiny holes in the leather. “It’s fine.” It’s not fine; it's a very nice, very expensive piece of furniture, and her mother will definitely notice if she ever came over to rub Lena’s life choices in her face. Lena sneaks in a glare over at Streaky, but she only sighs to herself as she inspects the damage. “Nothing too visible, see?” 

“I’m sorry,” Kara says. There is the crinkle between her eyebrows again. It’s unfair when Lena wants to be displeased about the turn of events. 

“Don’t worry about it, Kara. Really.” Lena shrugs and lets out a soft chuckle. Between a far-too-adorable cat and his lovely, lovely human, Lena isn’t really given reason to be mad. “Gives my couch some character, don’t you think?” 

Kara bites her lip and just nods, like she is still mentally calculating how much the repair of the couch costs. Lena vaguely wonders if Streaky had used Kara’s couch as a scratching post, hence the blonde saying she knows someone. He probably had. Kara mutters under her breath and tries to pick Streaky up again but he yowls and struggles, squirming from Kara’s grip before jumping to the floor and to the coffee table. 

_ Mrraow!  _ He bares his teeth at Kara, his tail twitching. 

“Why are you acting out?” Kara mumbles, eyebrows furrowed at the black ball of fur. Lena is mildly amused at the fact that his human can’t even bring him home.

_ Meow!  _

Little devil cat. 

“I can just bring him home later?” Lena offers. 

Streaky meows, like he takes offense at that, and Lena turns to him with a quirked eyebrow. “Please, we all know you like being carried like the big baby you are.” 

_ Mrrraow.  _ Streaky shakes himself, black fur fluffing, before turning his back towards the two women and dramatically collapsing on his side on the coffee table. 

Then he stretches and yawns. Lena is confused for a second until she realizes he just went to sleep. 

“Is this because I took you to the vet for meds this morning?” Kara mutters, hands on her hips, and Lena shouldn’t find it  _ sexy  _ but god, she does—that fantasy of Kara being a professor back in full force and  _ shit,  _ fuck, shut up brain. 

“Now we all know why he’s acting out,” Lena says. 

Kara turns to her with a little huff and a far-too-adorable pout. Okay. How the  _ fuck  _ does this woman go from panty-dropping hot to endearingly cute? 

“Don’t side with him,” Kara frowns. “He was scheduled for shots.” 

“Mhm.” Lena smiles and gives Streaky a quick pat on the head, and Kara glares at the furball like he was a traitor. “I totally get it, kitty cat.” 

_ “Lena,”  _ Kara full-on whines, and it’s so cute and  _ heartwarming _ that Lena can’t help but laugh. 

“Clearly I’m the good cop between the both of us,” she says playfully. Kara’s eyes twinkle with mirth—a sort of familiarity between them, which was new, Lena thinks, but it’s definitely welcome. Especially when Lena just wants to spend the rest of the night staring into Kara’s eyes. “Want to stay for a bit?” 

The offer is out there before Lena could actually think about it, and  _ fuck,  _ she should be finishing the proposal she was reading, not inviting her gorgeous neighbor to stay a while, but it’s fine. She can read that proposal tomorrow, right? Yes. 

Kara opens her mouth for a moment, closes it, then smiles, her shoulders relaxing. “I- If you don’t mind,” she agrees, the barest hint of a flush on her cheeks hidden away by the frame of her glasses. “Have you- um, have you had dinner?” 

Technically, Lena had. She even had her leftovers in the fridge. 

And yet, she found herself shaking her head as she sits on the couch, moving her laptop to the coffee table beside Streaky. She wonders if she managed to eat some butterflies with her vegetable lo mein earlier, because there is the furious fluttering in her belly as she looks at Kara—who is looking at her like she holds time in her hands. It makes Lena a little light-headed. 

“Want to order something?” Lena asks. She gestures for Kara to sit on the couch beside her. Kara grins and takes off her blazer—it’s a show in itself, and Lena feels a different type of hunger as the fabric of Kara’s dress shirt presses against the plane of her abs and the curve of her chest and  _ Jesus,  _ if Streaky was a mind reader then he was definitely judging her right now. 

“There’s this great Chinese place nearby. You probably know it,” Kara says, hanging her blazer on the arm of the couch. She kicks her shoes off, too, revealing a pair of socks with cute prints, this time of rainbows. 

Well now. That looks gay. That’s gay, right? 

Kara sits on the other side of the couch, too far for Lena’s taste. Well. Not gay enough, but that’s  _ fine.  _ God knows what Lena would end up doing to her neighbor if she— _ shut up.  _

“If you’re fine with Chinese?” Kara adds due to Lena's silence. “Their potstickers are to  _ die  _ for.” 

Kara honestly sounds so excited for said potstickers. Lena hasn’t tried them—has only eaten at the Chinese place once or twice before—and doesn’t have the heart to say no either. She smiles and watches Kara fish her phone from her pocket. “That sounds great,” Lena replies. “You, um, want to watch something?”

Kara beams and nods, tapping her phone without even looking, her bright blue eyes on Lena’s. “Orange chicken cool with you?” 

Lena reaches for the remote and turns on the TV across them. “I’ll let you decide,” she tells Kara. Lena catches a sort of look in her eyes before Kara nods. 

“Oh, they’ll blow your mind away,” she says, still smiling and so fucking excited about food that Lena can’t help but think of a puppy. A golden retriever puppy with a cute little bowtie. She also thinks of other ways Kara could blow her mind away, but she pushes those thoughts far, far from her mind. This is fine. This is  _ nice.  _ Just two neighbors, spending a night together for dinner and Netflix because the other neighbor’s cat is acting out. 

“Okay. Food’s arriving in, hm, half an hour maybe?” Kara announces, then puts her phone on the coffee table. “What are we watching?” 

Lena shrugs as she flips through the titles. “Anything you want to watch?” 

Kara hums. “I think you can never go wrong with Disney. Oh! Or  _ The Good Place.  _ My friend’s been making me watch it.” 

“Alright,” Lena says with a small laugh. “ _ The Good Place  _ it is.”

“Awesome,” Kara beams, and Lena gives her a glance only to find herself choking on air at the way Kara smiles at her, so familiar and so  _ cozy _ that Lena just wants to curl up to her like how Streaky curled up to Lena just earlier. 

The first episode is aptly titled  _ Everything is Fine.  _ As Kara makes herself comfortable on the couch, close enough for Lena to feel her presence but not  _ close enough  _ to feel her warmth, Lena decides that Everything is Not Fine.

Their food arrives more than half an hour later, not that Lena could really complain about being hungry. Kara volunteers to get the food from the delivery guy, who seems to know Kara and even asks why she’s in another unit, and Lena vaguely overhears the blonde telling him she was with a friend.

_ Friend.  _ Lena feels warm at the thought. 

“Here it is,” Kara singsongs, bringing the paper bags of food that bore the logo of the same restaurant Lena got her lo mein from. Lena keeps her mouth shut about it. She does gently pull Streaky off the coffee table and onto the couch beside her so Kara could put the food on it. The furball wasn’t happy, a grumble of a meow sounding from him, but he ignores the two and returns to sleep. 

It means Lena has to move to give him some space on the couch, and when Kara returns to sit, they are close enough that their thighs brush. Lena notices, of course, her heart skipping a beat— _ pull yourself together, lesbian, _ she tells herself—but Kara doesn’t seem to, not when her attention was on the food boxes she is taking out from the paper bags. 

“Okay. Potstickers. Pronto. If you don’t like them, we can’t be friends,” Kara says with a little laugh, handing Lena a pair of wooden chopsticks. She grins warmly at Lena and the raven-haired woman is sure she isn’t breathing at this point. Kara is so close. “I’m kidding. More for me if you don’t like them.”

“You really like these potstickers then, huh?” Lena says, taking the offered chopsticks with a soft murmur of thanks. 

“They’re my favorite,” Kara explains. She rolls her sleeves to her elbows, pulling the fabric taut against her toned arms that Lena swallows, feeling the different sort of hunger again. Kara takes one of the potstickers for herself too, practically shoves it into her mouth with little grace. Lena only finds it endearing. She takes one of the dumplings in the food box and dips it in the little plastic bowl of soy sauce, and she can feel the way Kara practically vibrates until she puts the thing in her mouth. She lets out a soft hum as she chews—a little conscious of herself, what with the way Kara  _ stares.  _

“Well?” Kara demands, and Lena is reminded of the way Streaky would headbutt her palm for some petting. 

Lena swallows and tilts her head at the blonde. “Well. Less for you, Kara,” she says, and reaches for another of the potstickers. She raises an eyebrow as Kara watches her take the dumpling and dip it in sauce before putting it into her mouth, mild amusement and curiosity in those blue eyes.

Kara doesn’t seem bothered at all by Lena’s statement; in fact, she looks so pleased with herself as she nods and hands Lena her order of orange chicken.

“We’ll just order more next time then,” Kara says, like it’s the most normal thing to say—like she didn’t just promise another one of these nights with Lena. She opens her own food box, digs in, and turns to Lena with a smile like she has known her in all the months she’s lived in Argo. “Let’s keep watching?” 

Their dinner is finished before they start their fifth episode, and Lena insists it’s okay to leave their empty food boxes on the coffee table—she isn’t going to admit it’s because she didn’t want to move, however, especially with how they are sitting much closer now, enough that Lena could feel the warmth of Kara’s clothed thigh against her own. 

Somewhere in the middle of the next episode, Streaky had woken up only to lick himself. Lena giggles at the sight and pets him. He takes the attention and demands for more, meowing and headbutting Lena’s hand, and it seems like Lena can’t give him enough because he meows again before climbing on Lena’s lap. 

“Jesus. You’re heavy,” Lena laughs, but Streaky doesn’t seem to care. He meows again and practically grinds his face against Lena’s chin, front paws on her stomach, even as Lena moves to scratch between his ears and under his belly. 

“Needy much?” Lena hears Kara mutter beside her. Lena chuckles and eyes the blonde, who seems to be…  _ pouting.  _

“Clearly I’m the favorite,” Lena says. 

“No, I’m just letting him have you,” Kara replies cheekily, before turning her attention fully on the screen once more. Lena laughs at her reply—even as her mind raced and heart fluttered, because if only Kara was aware how Lena would really rather have the blonde have her. 

_ Meow!  _

Lena tears her gaze from Kara and bites her lip as she looks down at Streaky, who blinks at Lena like he knows. Lena raises an eyebrow and Streaky meows once more. 

“What is it, kitty cat?” She mutters. 

_ Mrraow.  _

Then Streaky moves to Kara’s lap, making the blonde watch him as he curls up into a ball there. Kara grins at Lena, pride in her smile, and her hands almost automatically begin gently scratching the cat on her lap. “How about that.” 

Lena won’t fucking admit she’s jealous. Of a  _ cat.  _

_ “You’re _ spoiling him,” Lena comments. She’s trying to sound annoyed, really, but she can’t help the smile on her lips that mirrors Kara’s own. That charming little smile is apparently contagious too. 

“If I shower him with less attention than you have been giving him, he might not love me anymore,” Kara laughs.

Lena bites the quip on her tongue because she definitely doesn’t want to go down that road. 

Not yet, at least. 

_ Shut up.  _

“I’m not trying to steal him from you,” Lena teases. “But he probably does love me more than you.”

Kara hums and looks at Lena—it’s intense, really, but it’s fleeting as Kara returns her gaze to the TV. “I doubt that,” she murmurs. 

Lena almost misses it but she doesn’t dwell on it either, not when she’s still trying to remember to breathe. Kara doesn’t notice. They continue to watch, and here and there they make conversation about the show, like the question of morality, what Lena thinks of robots— _ Janet’s not a robot,  _ Lena points out, and Kara laughs and scrunches her nose over at Lena before telling her she’s a smartass, and it’s such a warm, friendly remark that Lena wants to melt—and how Eleanor is very clearly into Tahani. 

“I’m pretty sure no straight woman fondly calls a gal pal  _ hot stuff,”  _ Kara says with an amused laugh. “Have you called anyone hot stuff?”

“I haven’t, but I’m not straight,” Lena replies, not really thinking about it. 

Kara turns her head to her so fast that Lena worries for a second, both about Kara's head and her own reply. 

“Oh.” Kara laughs, a little awkwardly this time. She returns her attention to the screen. “Um. Me too.” 

Lena’s mind reels at the revelation, of course, but she tries not to let it show.  _ Not straight.  _ There was her confirmation, coming in the most casual of ways. Her chances of possibly dating Kara have increased a significant percentage considering Kara sways that way, but that itself presents more problems: namely, that Lena  _ has  _ to ask Kara out, and of course, that Kara  _ has  _ to have at least some mild interest in Lena. 

Well. She’ll think about that later. 

They manage to finish a few more episodes, not noticing the time until Netflix asks them if they were still watching—partly distracted by the way they made soft conversation so Streaky doesn’t wake. When Lena checks the time, she sees it’s almost 11. 

“Shit. Didn’t realize the time, sorry,” Lena says with an apologetic smile. 

Kara just shakes her head. “It’s fine,” she assures. “Um. I’ll let you get ready for bed now though.” She moves to carry Streaky like a baby in her arms. The black furball mewls and huffs, like he is protesting, but he only curls further into Kara’s strong, toned arms. 

_ Shut up, Lena. _

“Okay,” Lena says, standing and leading Kara to the door. She opens it for the pair. “Thanks for keeping me company,” she tells Kara. 

The blonde smiles. “Thanks for letting us stay.” 

Kara leaves with a soft  _ good night _ , and Lena echoes it just as softly. She waits a few seconds before closing the door. She sighs and presses her forehead against the door, and realizes further that she’s still smiling. 

Shaking her head, Lena pulls herself out of her reverie and returns to the couch to clean up, then notices that Kara has forgotten her blazer. She resists the urge to smell the fabric—because that is definitely  _ creepy _ , she tells herself, crush or otherwise—and instead heads out the door to return it to Kara. 

She meets Kara halfway in the hallway. Kara looks sheepish as she points at the blazer in Lena’s hands. 

“Sorry,” she murmurs with a grin. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Lena chuckles. She hands Kara her blazer and she thinks she imagines the way their fingers touch, but when she looks at Kara, the blonde is looking between them. 

Then she looks up, locking gazes with Lena, and the raven-haired woman forgets to breathe all over again. 

“Um. Good night, Lena,” Kara says—whispers, even, and it echoes given the silence of the hallway. 

Lena smiles. “Sweet dreams, Kara.” 

There is a moment, a second or two, that they just stand there, in the middle of the hallway, unmoving, as if they were waiting for the other to leave first. Kara clears her throat and smiles, lifting the blazer a bit to finally break contact before stepping back, and Lena mirrors the movement. She heads back to her apartment, not daring to look behind her, but she hears the soft closing of the door from the other end of the hallway a second after she closed her own. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Sorry this got delayed, but thank you for joining me in this little tale. 
> 
> If you have time or money to spare, volunteer and/or donate to [Best Friends Animal Society,](https://bestfriends.org/) which runs the largest no-kill shelter in America, or [Philippine Pet Birth Control Center Foundation](https://www.paypal.me/supportPPBCC) to support free neutering/spaying of cats and dogs in the PH, or to your nearest local animal shelter. Streaky and his moms will approve. 
> 
> Unbetaed, as usual, so apologies for the mistakes. Anyway—Supercorp endgame!

It shouldn’t make her feel like a damned giddy teen, but it does. 

Lena doesn’t fall asleep until it was four in the morning, mind replaying over and over the night she just spent with Kara. Sure, she’s had her fair share of relationships—a boarding school fling here, a few one-night stands there, a two-year relationship in between that her mother hasn’t moved on from yet—but it’s been a  _ while.  _ Work has claimed her attention for far too long and even though there had been a few interested colleagues, Lena focused on her career. 

She had to admit, having this little crush feels… nice. The butterflies in her belly haven’t quite calmed down, and she could still feel the warmth from Kara’s touch lingering against her fingertips, even if it had been hours since she handed the blonde’s blazer.

It’s a crush, she tells herself, despite that one fleeting thought she had while she was with Kara. She likes being around the woman, that’s all—both the combined few minutes of Lena returning Streaky to his human’s apartment and the couple of hours they spent with soft conversation over Netflix. Kara is good company, and for someone who’s had work as companion for some time, it’s a breath of fresh air. Hell, Lena likes taking care of Streaky, too, whether or not it put her on Kara’s good graces. 

Lena tries to not fixate on Kara’s casual mention of a next time and tells herself she shouldn’t hang on to hope. Maybe Kara was being friendly, or worse, polite. It wasn’t a promise or an offer, just conversation. 

But hope is a fucking wretched thing. It makes Lena overthink, makes her  _ imagine,  _ and it brings her to dangerous waters.

She wakes up the next morning, a good half an hour before her alarm is set to ring, fleeting images of her dream still lingering behind her eyelids—her and Kara in the hallway, except instead of Kara taking her blazer, she takes Lena’s hand and pulls her into a kiss. 

It derails Lena’s focus for the day, replaying the dream over and over until it feels like a memory.

//

_ Next time _ arrives far sooner than Lena expects. Not that she expected another night just hanging out with Kara—sure, she hoped for it, but didn’t really think it would be the following night. She leaves the office late, like she usually did, and arrives home to Streaky in her living room, meowing like the demanding cat he is. Lena, of course, gives him the petting and the food he demands without a fuss, along with their usual one-sided conversation.

Lena doesn’t ask Streaky about Kara, of course. That would be a dumb thing to do. 

When he’s done eating, Streaky meows and leaps off the counter to head to the front door. Lena rolls her eyes but follows him with a fond smile anyway, then opens the door for him. Streaky only sits, waiting, his tail swishing as big bright eyes stare up at Lena. 

Lena shakes her head in amusement and she sighs, disbelieving at how she had let this blackhole of a feline boss her around like this. However, she still takes her phone to call Kara. 

The blonde answers on the second ring.

“Hey Lena,” Kara greets, soft like she’s dreaming. Lena wonders if it’s already past her bedtime. Streaky meows. 

“Hey,” Lena replies. She leans down to scratch behind the cat’s ears. “Are you home?” 

“Yeah—oh no,” Kara says with a deep sigh. Lena hears some shuffling of paper from the other line. “He was just right here.” 

“He’s a sneaky bastard, isn’t he?” Lena chuckles. Streaky meows up at Lena at that but she only raises an eyebrow. “I’ll bring him over.” 

“Are you sure? I can just pick him up.”

Lena presses her phone against her ear with her shoulder as she picks up Streaky. “I got him, don’t worry about it,” she assures the blonde, and closes the door to her apartment to make her way to Kara’s. 

“Okay,” Kara says softly. “See you in a bit.” 

“See you,” Lena replies with a smile. She ends the call, pockets her phone, and looks down at the purring cat in her arms. “You know. You’re not so bad,” she mumbles, scratching him under his chin. Streaky extends his neck for more. “Getting to see your mom is a nice way to end the day.” 

The soft admission, even only to herself, makes Lena pause on her walk. She nibbles on her lip, fingers still on Streaky’s furry chin, and sighs. It’s a crush. It’s all it has to be. 

She arrives at Kara’s front door in less than a minute. Lena knocks, three firm strikes, and the door swings open to reveal Kara. 

“Hi.” It’s a breathless little greeting, one that makes Lena bite back a smile. She tries her best not to check out Kara, and settles for just noting the dress shirt still tucked in her slacks, albeit a little messily. 

“Hey,” Lena finally greets. “I have—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Streaky is squirming in her arms until he’s right side up and then leaping to the floor. 

_ Mraow,  _ he says, side-eyeing Lena, before walking into the apartment. 

“Streak!” Kara huffs. The two women follow the cat with their gaze as he vanishes to the couch. 

“You’re welcome, kitty cat,” Lena calls out with an amused laugh. When she looks back at Kara, she is looking at Lena—a certain shimmer in her eyes that Lena catches before it disappears. 

It’s a moment before either of them speaks again. 

“Have—um, have you had dinner?” Kara asks, sounding so unsure that Lena can’t help but smile. She sometimes skipped dinner, and actually forgot about it altogether until Kara mentioned it. 

“I was… going to get some delivered,” Lena says, gesturing to the direction of her apartment. 

“Oh.” Kara bites her lip. “Me too? Do you—maybe we could, um, order together? We can keep watching  _ The Good Place.” _

Lena is a little surprised at the offer. She sees Kara swallow, her throat bobbing, and the blonde fiddles with her glasses for a second and looks like she is about the take back the offer. 

“I’d love that,” Lena replies, her voice soft like she couldn’t trust her voice to be any louder.

And just like that, Kara beams, sunlight through the trees. She steps aside and tilts her head to invite Lena in. “Come on. What were you thinking of getting?” 

Lena steps into the apartment. She notices the laptop on the coffee table, beside it some folders and sheets of paper. “Not really sure,” Lena says, then turns to Kara as the blonde closes the door. “How about you?” 

“Um. Burgers and fries from Big Belly Burger,” Kara says. She fixes her glasses on her nose, leaving them skewed. Lena clasps her hands in front of her to yet again fight the urge to reach out and straighten them. 

“I haven’t actually…” Lena tilts her head. She’s never one to be adventurous with food, but Kara seems to know a lot about restaurants in the city. “I think I’ll have the same then—or, hm, do they have onion rings?” Lena says with a soft hum. 

Kara nods, that bright smile still on her lips. “Onion rings it is.” She hurries to the coffee table and searches for something under the pile of papers. The blonde lets out a victorious  _ aha!  _ when she finds her phone, and makes a quick work of typing something while Lena watched her, amused. 

“Are you sure I’m okay to stay?” Lena asks, gesturing to the papers on the coffee table. An empty word document is on Kara’s laptop screen. “You seem a bit busy.” 

The reporter laughs nervously as she pockets her phone and closes her laptop, then collects the papers to shove them into the folder to put them all aside. “Yeah! Totally, just, uh—” Kara waves her hands and shrugs. “I was gonna start an article but I haven’t really been able to get into it.” 

“And it’s okay for me to distract you?” Lena asks, walking around the couch to find Streaky curled up into a ball on the other end, already dozing away. The woman reaches out to gently run her fingers through his soft fur. Streaky purrs. 

“Definitely. Not!” Kara furrows her eyebrows. When Lena looks up at her, she finds Kara biting her lip. “Not that you’re a distraction. Your company’s very welcome, Lena. Um, I- I wasn’t getting anything done anyway, and I was hungry.”

Lena laughs softly at that; Kara smiles, too, like she’s relieved, and Lena wonders what she is thinking. “I mean, it’s pretty late,” Lena smiles, and she finally settles beside the slumbering feline. Streaky shifts on his back, presenting his belly to presumably demand Lena for more scratches. Lena chuckles and pets him. She turns to Kara. The blonde seems to pout at the way Lena has her attention on Streaky, and it makes Lena smile to herself.

Kara is endearing and good-looking, how can she not? 

“Okay. Food will be here in half an hour,” Kara promises. She gestures behind her with her thumb. “Um. Would you- anything to drink?” She offers. “I have green tea. And, um, some wine. If you’d like.”

Lena’s smile widens at that, warmth blooming in her chest as she thinks back to that night. “You remembered.”

Kara straightens her glasses and shrugs. “Least I could do, really.”

“I really don’t mind looking after him a bit,” Lena says as she looks at Streaky. He’s purring away, and he serves as enough distraction from how Kara looks at her, so intently that Lena forgets to breathe. “But if it gets me free wine…” 

She hears Kara chuckle. “Wine it is.” 

Lena looks up to catch Kara looking at her, before Kara seems to snap out of whatever thought she was in and she steps back into the kitchen. Lena swallows; the need to reach out and hold Kara burns, and so Lena busies herself with Streaky instead.

Kara returns after a few minutes, two wine glasses in hand and a bottle of red wine in the other. She sets them on the coffee table then takes her laptop and her files to place them on the nearby side table, just to give them more space. 

That giddy, nervous feeling returns in Lena’s chest, butterflies fluttering about in her belly as she watches Kara move. She sits beside Lena on the couch, not close enough for their thighs to touch but close enough for Lena to catch the hint of vanilla and cinnamon. It makes Lena think of a lazy Sunday morning. Kara opens the bottle of wine—a quarter of it already gone, and Lena wonders who else Kara has shared it with only to tell herself it’s curiosity, not jealousy, that gnaws at her—then pours some for both of them. 

“Here you go,” Kara offers with a soft whisper, handing Lena her glass. Lena hesitates, but when she takes it, she thinks she imagines the way their fingers brush, which makes Lena think back to the night before. 

“Thank you,” Lena murmurs. She feels the need for something stronger than just wine but she takes it anyway, sipping the red liquid with a soft hum. “Lovely.”

Kara lets out what sounds like a relieved sigh before reaching for the remote to turn the TV on. “Glad you liked it,” she says, glancing at Lena, before focusing on the screen. “So.  _ The Good Place?”  _

They manage to watch two episodes before their delivery arrives. Lena hasn’t actually tried Big Belly Burger but has passed by the restaurant a few times. When she tells Kara, the blonde lights up like that time she talked of potstickers and tells Lena their burgers are life-changing. 

Lena tastes them and agrees—or at least, that’s what she tells Kara, and herself. Kara keeps grinning at her and the hunger in Lena’s belly stays despite the burger and onion rings. As they go through the next episodes, the distance between them vanishes until their thighs brush and Lena could feel the warmth of Kara’s arm against her own. It doesn’t calm her racing heart, and she is vaguely aware of the fact that it’s unhealthy to feel her nerves thrumming for an hour or two. 

Their soft conversation while they watch is Lena’s only saving grace, if she could even call it that. Kara’s laughter and whispered voice serves to stoke the warmth in Lena’s chest, and all she feels is the need to curl up in Kara’s arms like how Streaky has, midway another episode.

When Streaky stirs and decides he has no need for either women, he leaps off of Kara’s lap and onto the TV stand, effectively blocking a good portion of the screen. It makes Lena laugh and Kara sigh. The blonde stands to pick up Streaky, mumbling something and kissing the top of his head before letting him jump off her arms so he could head to the kitchen. 

“I was wondering when he would do that,” Kara says with a soft laugh. She returns to sit beside Lena, much closer this time, and Lena feels her heartbeat spike that for a moment she worries Kara would hear. 

“Have you ever lifted him up like Simba?” Lena asks, sounding as casual as she could. 

“Are you kidding?” Kara says with an incredulous huff. Then she beams, sunrise in the living room despite it being almost midnight. “Of course I have.” 

They end up finishing the first season of the series, and when they realize what time it was, Kara apologizes.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lena says with a soft smile. Streaky returns to the living room with a loud  _ meow!  _ “Yes, Mr. Streak, I am on my way home,” Lena laughs, and she thinks she imagines Kara frowning before the blonde gestures to the door.

“I’ll—um, let me walk you.”

It’s five steps from the couch to the door, but Lena doesn’t say no. She hears a meow, but Lena is far too distracted by the way Kara runs her fingers through her hair to push back the stray strands from her face. 

All it takes is one misstep and a black hole of a cat. Streaky tries to weave past them but Lena doesn’t see him and falls out of balance. She fully expects to land face-first on the apartment floor, but all she really feels are strong arms around her and Kara’s soft little  _ woah,  _ so close to Lena’s ear.

When Lena turns her head, she realizes it’s because Kara has caught her in her arms, her face so close to Lena’s that the raven-haired woman forgets to breathe all over again. 

“You okay?” Kara asks softly, eyebrows furrowed with concern 

No, Lena doesn’t think she’s okay. She can’t breathe, and she feels a little light-headed and this is the universe telling her once again if she’s sure about her thirsty little thoughts, because god, Kara’s arms feel so,  _ so much better  _ than she had imagined—not that she had imagined them a lot. Not a lot. A few times, maybe, and—

_ Mrraaaoowwww. _

The little devil cat can truly read minds, Lena is sure of it now. 

“S-sorry, shit, um, I didn’t step on him, did I?” Lena says, a little bit breathless as Kara helps her upright, hand on the small of Lena’s back that Lena burns where she touched.  _ Calm down, lesbian.  _ The blonde glances at Streaky, who sits on the couch and licks himself with no care in the world. 

“I don’t think you hurt him,” Kara says with a little laugh, before turning to Lena, concern in blue eyes that Lena almost drowns. “You didn’t hit yourself or anything, did you?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Lena says with a tight smile. “Um. Thanks for catching me,” she adds, even if she feels like she’s still falling.

_ Fuck. _

“Having a cat practices your reflex,” Kara chuckles, pushing her glasses up and shrugging. “You’ve no idea how many things I’ve had to stop him from pushing off high places.” 

Lena manages a small laugh, but it’s a reminder that it shouldn’t be a big deal—sure, her heart is still racing and warmth lingers where Kara has touched her but  _ it wasn’t a big deal.  _

“Okay. Um.” Lena clears her throat and gestures for the door again. Kara blinks and nods, as if realizing just where they were again, and she walks Lena to the door like she had promised a minute ago.

Just as Kara opens the door, Lena remembers something. “Oh, how much do I owe you for dinner?” Lena asks. It makes her remember that Kara covered for last night’s dinner as well, and Lena wants to smack herself in the face. “Fuck, and last night’s too.”

Kara opens her mouth to speak as she swings the door open, then shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Kara…” 

“Lena,” Kara shoots back, and she’s grinning that contagious, sunny grin that makes Lena weak in the knees. “Honest, it’s okay. How about you pay for the next one, hm?”

There it is, the promise of another night like this. Lena should say no—it’s going to be a habit, the first steps into an addiction, but Kara looks so hopeful that Lena could only smile back. 

“Fine. Next time.” 

And just when Lena thinks Kara’s sunny smile couldn’t get any brighter, it does, warming Lena to her very bones. Lena takes a moment to nod again and step out of the apartment, and with a sigh, she makes her way back to her own. 

She has taken three full steps before Kara calls out to her. 

Lena turns, heart pounding. 

“I- Um.” Kara clears her throat, the sun in her smile dimmed by uncertainty, until she shines again. “Good night, Lena.”

Lena holds back a sigh and instead mirrors Kara’s smile. “Sweet dreams, Kara.”

//

Their nights together become a habit, whether it’s thirty seconds of Lena carrying Streaky back to Kara’s apartment and bidding the blonde  _ sweet dreams  _ or it’s four hours, dinner, and half a season of whatever TV series they were watching. The only reprieve Lena’s heart gets is weekends when Kara would visit her sister, Alex, or when they would drive home together to Midvale to see their mother, Eliza. 

On nights when Lena comes home late, she finds Streaky already waiting for her in her apartment for food and pets. Sometimes, Kara is still writing when Lena calls to say she is taking Streaky home, but even on nights when she wakes Kara up in the wee hours of the morning, the blonde invites her in for some tea and they talk about how their day had gone while Streaky dozed away on the dinner table.

On the rare evenings when Lena comes home first, Streaky comes knocking—meowing and scratching at the door until Lena lets him in. Lena feeds him and lets him stay until Kara comes home, then they have dinner delivered from whatever random place Kara has picked and watch something until Streaky allows his human to leave. 

It’s friendship borne of mutual care for Kara’s little devil cat—Lena keeps calling Streaky that despite how he had grown on her, much to Kara’s amusement—and it doesn’t hurt that Kara’s company is a warm, welcome change to the pace of Lena’s workday. Kara becomes the closest thing Lena has to a best friend in the several weeks they had come to know each other like they had been friends for a while— _ friends,  _ despite the longing that tugs Lena’s chest each time Kara smiles at her, each time Kara bids her  _ good night,  _ that has Lena looking forward for the end of a work day just so she could see Kara again. 

Lena’s early clock-outs become less rare, and if anyone at work noticed, they haven’t said anything—though Jess keeps throwing Lena knowing glances each time she leaves work early.

It’s Friday night after a long week and Lena decides to go home a little after sunset—still later than required of her but still much earlier than she had been used to her entire life. She isn’t too surprised anymore to find Streaky already waiting for her as soon as she opens the door—she has long given up on trying to find out how the hell the black hole of a cat keeps breaking in, and has just accepted the fact that he could probably walk through walls. Lena goes through their routine: she gives Streaky his food and water, pets him for a minute or two, then grabs a book to read and lounges on the couch until Streaky joins her. 

Her nights with Kara makes Lena look at the clock here and there. It seems Kara had a long night tonight, too. 

“Think your mom went clubbing?” Lena asks Streaky, who is curled up on her lap and purring in content while Lena gently scratched his head. “It is a Friday night, after all…” 

Streaky meows, then perks up his head. Lena tears her attention from her book to the cat, who shoots up from her lap and leaps his way to the door with a meow. 

Lena laughs and shakes her head to follow the darned fluffy thing, already knowing who’s on the other side.  _ Speak of the devil. _ Lena opens the door before Kara could knock, her fist raised, surprise coloring her cheeks before she beams.

“Hi.” 

_ Meow,  _ Streaky greets, headbutting Kara’s leg and grabbing Kara’s attention for a moment before heading back into Lena’s apartment. 

“You know,” Lena starts, stepping aside to wordlessly invite Kara in with a bob of her head. “I’m considering giving you a key.” 

Kara laughs and walks in, following Streaky with her gaze before looking at Lena, mirth in blue eyes. “ _ I _ should give you a key considering Streaky always sneaks in the wee hours of the morning.”

Lena shakes her head at the thought as she closes the door. “I still haven’t figured out how he—” She pauses as her eyes find the paper bag in Kara’s hand. “Is that Big Belly Burger?”

Kara looks down at the paper bag. “Yeah,” she says, grin spreading wider. “Hope you haven’t had dinner yet?”

Lena hopes she isn’t blushing, but there’s the warmth again, in her chest, and it feels like coming home but Lena knows she is supposed to run away from it. It doesn’t matter that every night she arrives to her apartment only to bring Streaky to Kara’s, it feels like coming home; that every time Kara comes knocking to Lena’s to spend time with her until Streaky allows her to leave, it feels like she’s coming home to Lena. 

Lena isn't supposed to think of it like that. They’re _ friends.  _ It’s only supposed to be a crush. Her neighbor is good-looking, after all, but Kara is warm and soft and so caring that Lena has to consciously tell herself each time that they’re just  _ friends.  _

Kara brought her dinner, as a friend, but against Lena’s better judgment, the butterflies break free in her stomach, stoking a different kind of hunger. 

“You're my favorite,” Lena manages to say, and she bites her tongue because that’s  _ definitely  _ not what she’s supposed to be saying. 

Kara blinks once, surprised, but then laughs in a way that tells Lena what she said isn’t a big deal. “I thought Streaky was your favorite,” Kara says, bringing the paper bag to the coffee table before picking up the black cat, who struggles in her arms and yowls before jumping to the couch. Kara huffs playfully. “And clearly, you’re his.” 

“You’re not wrong there,” Lena says with a laugh that she hopes doesn’t sound nervous, or worse, smitten, and tries her best to pull herself together. She can overthink later. 

They sit on the couch and Lena turns on the TV so they could continue watching  _ Brooklyn Nine Nine _ —so she could fill in the silence in fear that Kara might just hear her racing heartbeat. Despite the nights that had become a habit, Lena still quite hasn’t gotten used to being so close to Kara. It’s unfair, because Kara seems so at ease with her, the sort of closeness and familiarity that nails home the fact that, well. 

They’re friends. That’s all. 

They’re friends, and their nights like this are friendly things—Kara leans back on the couch and takes one of the burgers in the paper bag to wordlessly hand it to Lena, and Lena accepts it with a soft  _ thank you  _ as she plays the next episode. They eat and have soft conversation, lulled by laughter as they watch, and occasionally distracted by Streaky sniffing their fries or demanding attention. 

If they accidentally brush fingers as they take the same onion ring or if Lena notices Kara glancing at her when the blonde thinks she isn’t looking, Lena doesn’t think about it. 

She can overthink when she’s alone. 

They finish dinner and six episodes when Lena notices Kara had fallen quiet—odd, when her laughter colors Lena’s apartment. The raven-haired woman realizes Kara has fallen asleep, head drooped sideways, arms crossed against her chest. Her glasses are skewed on her nose, her lips parted slightly, and Lena knows it shouldn’t feel like her chest is caving in at the sight of Kara so comfortably vulnerable in her presence but her heart breaks, just a little. 

How quickly could this woman build a home in Lena’s very being?

Streaky is curled up beside her, sandwiched between the side of the couch and Kara’s thigh, oblivious of storm in Lena’s mind like his human was. Lena sighs and tells herself to keep it together—she can overthink later, when Kara has gone home, and tomorrow, she can tire herself to the bone and keep her interaction with her neighbor and her devil cat to a bare minimum. 

There’s a very slim chance of that happening, Lena knows. She’s one for destructive habits, after all: having fourteen-hour work days, taking too much responsibility, and pining for a woman who is warmth and home humanized. 

Sighing, Lena reaches out to shake Kara’s shoulder gently. Kara barely wakes, but she makes a soft moan that has Lena biting her lip. 

“Kara,” Lena whispers, patting the blonde’s shoulder this time. “Hey. You’ll get stiff neck if you sleep like that.”

Kara hums and stirs, and Lena aches all over again, this time at the thoughts of  _ what if— _ what if, one day, they don’t just spend nights together?

What if one day, Lena could watch Kara slowly wake up like this in the morning?

It’s wishful, dangerous thinking. 

Kara pulls Lena away from her thoughts as she opens her eyes, traces of sleep in blue, and Lena blushes and feels a tad guilty for waking up the woman. 

“Sorry,” Lena whispers. She pulls back her hand and cradles it like a burn, but only to keep Kara’s lingering warmth. “But I’ve slept like that, you’ll regret it when you wake.”

Kara blinks a few times. “Stiff necks and backaches are the curse of adulthood,” she mumbles, sitting up a little and fixing her glasses. It’s still askew. 

Lena curls her hands into fists on her lap smiles fondly at the blonde. “Long day at work?”

Kara nods and shrugs. “The new demanding boss finally came in, so a pretty busy week.” She glances at the TV where Lena has paused the show. Kara smiles sheepishly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

Lena waves her apology away. “It’s okay. It’s pretty late.” Before she could help herself, she is reaching out and straightening Kara’s glasses. Kara’s lips part, and Lena feels cotton in her throat. 

The two seconds of silence between them breaks when Streaky mewls and imposes his presence, shaking his fur and yawning before crawling onto Kara’s lap. 

_ Meow! _ He stares up at Lena and blinks. 

“Yes, kitty cat?” Lena answers with a slight laugh, thankful for once for Streaky’s demands for attention. 

_ Mraow.  _

Kara chuckles at him, patting his head gently before pulling him into her arms. Lena’s eyes follow the movement, catches fabric straining against toned arms. 

_ Not jealous of a fucking cat… _

“We should head home,” Kara says, voice still laced with sleep. 

Lena nods and stands. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

Kara nods, too, and Lena leads the way. She opens the door for the two. Streaky meows just as Kara steps out, headbutting the blonde’s chin. 

“Someone’s extra needy,” Lena chuckles. She tries not to glare at the cat. He seems to like rubbing the fact that he’s getting Kara’s affection to Lena’s face. 

_ Mraow! _

Fucking devil cat. 

“He’s probably hungry again,” Kara mumbles, but she isn’t looking at Lena. The raven-haired woman forces a smile despite it. Streaky only meows again, bumps Kara’s chin with his face, then leaps off of her arms. 

“Is… He okay?” Lena asks, confused. Streaky meows again, headbutts Kara’s leg, then looks up at Lena. Wide eyes make Lena tilt her head down at him. “What’s up, kitty cat?”

“He’s just—”

When Kara pauses, Lena has to look up at her. She should hate it, how easy it is for Kara to steal her breath—all it takes is for Kara to bite her lip like  _ that,  _ blue eyes intense as Kara seems to be looking for words in Lena’s eyes. 

_ Meow! _

When Kara finds the words she’s looking for, Lena loses hers. 

“Will— will you go out with me?”

Streaky finally shuts up then, and the hallway falls quiet because Lena isn’t even breathing and Kara doesn’t seem to be, either. 

Blue eyes dim with uncertainty and Kara fiddles with her glasses, leaving them askew on the bridge of her nose and god, Lena just knows she would never tire of setting them straight. 

“Like. On a date? I— I just,” Kara pauses, sighs, waves her hands and looks like she’s about to flee. “I like hanging out with you and making dumb commentaries about some funny show but— well, but also, sometimes, maybe want to, I don’t know,” Kara huffs, barely meets Lena’s gaze, and maybe that’s better because Lena probably can’t handle it.

“What I’m trying to say, is, Lena, I wanna make you laugh with my own dumb jokes and maybe, just kiss instead of watching whatever dumb show I’ve picked for the week or have you on my lap instead of Streaky and—”

Kara blushes when she realizes her words and Lena wants to make her shut up, really, but every word out of Kara’s mouth is a disaster in the making and it’s disaster Lena wants to be a part of. Lena can’t help but smile now, despite her breathlessness, despite the ache in her hands and her chest that calls out and pleads to hold Kara. 

“Please say something,” Kara says, half-whines. 

Breathless still, words still lost from her tongue, Lena settles for the next best thing: she reaches for Kara, pulling the blonde close, close,  _ closer _ , and presses her lips against Kara’s and—

And it’s coming home, lover waiting for you, smile on her lips and a promise of a morning together in her eyes. Kara lets out a soft sigh, a breath of relief, and Lena feels her pull her ever closer, hands on her waist. Kara tastes like lazy Sunday afternoons, hot chocolate on a rainy day, and blessed cool sheets on a summer night. 

_ Meow.  _

Ah,  _ fuck. _

“God,” Lena sighs, and she pulls away from Kara’s lips with a dreamy smile, eyes closed, forehead against Kara’s. She chuckles softly. “I’m gonna lock him outside if he cockblocks us.”

Kara laughs, steals another kiss from Lena, and pulls away—just enough for her to look down at Streaky, yet still holding on to Lena like she’s the last few minutes of sleep before getting ready for work: not quite ready to let go, just yet. 

_ Mraooow.  _

Kara glances at the cat by their feet, then looks up to meet Lena’s gaze. 

Lena melts. 

“Well,” Kara says, laughter on her lips, “I think he’s really good at breaking in.”

  
  


+

_ Meow! _

Lena grumbles sleepily and turns to lie down on her other side. There’s another meow, then a warm, furry weight settles on her hip. 

“It’s barely six, Streak,” Lena mumbles sleepily. “On a Saturday.” 

_ Mraowww! _

Lena covers her face with her arm, but then she hears a soft chuckle and feels the gentlest of kisses against her temple. 

“I got it, babe,” Kara whispers fondly. “Go get some rest.” 

Lena hums softly and lets sleep pull her back in. She feels more than sees Kara roll out of bed and Streaky leap from her hip to the floor. He meows as they walk out of the bedroom, leaving the raven-haired woman on her own in the coziness of their shared bed. 

She is almost dreaming when the bed dips with familiar weight. Lena feels the gentlest of touch as strong arms wrap around her waist, Kara pulling her against her warmth and brushing her nose against the curve between Lena’s neck and shoulder. 

“Morning, Lena,” Kara whispers, soft like a dream in Lena’s ear. Lena stirs. She places her hand on Kara’s against her belly and pulls it to her lips to press a sleepy kiss against the back of her hand. 

“Fed your devil cat?” Lena mumbles, eyes still closed. When Kara laughs, Lena feels the gentle rumble against her back. 

“You love that devil cat,” Kara replies. She threads their fingers together and squeezes Lena’s hand. “As I love you.”

Lena smiles, squeezes Kara’s hand, too, pulling away from sleep to turn and curl up against Kara’s strong arms, forgoing dreams for reality.

When she blinks away sleep and meets blue eyes, she knows she’s home. “And I love you.” 

  
  



End file.
